The Rest Of Our Lives by Ben Markovits

 

Tom Layward is a middle aged man, married, a lawyer with two children.  His son is grown and living in Los Angeles; his daughter about to start university.  Twelve years ago, his wife had an affair and Tom eventually decided to stay for the children.  Now, after he helps his daughter move into her dorm, he gets in his car and keeps moving.  

Tom isn't sure what he is doing.  Is he leaving his wife and marriage?  Not ready to say that, he decides that he is just driving and visiting people from his past.  He visits his college roommate who has just been fired and has a legal case he wants Tom to investigate.  He visits his brother whom he hasn't seen in several years and who is recently separated.  He visits his college girlfriend who is also single these days.  Eventually he makes it to Los Angeles and visits his son who seems to be working towards a new relationship with a woman Tom likes for him.  But what is Tom's life to be going forward?

Ben Markovits was born in the United States but now lives in England.  He has had a varied career with stints as a professional basketball player, a teacher, a job at a magazine and as an author.  He was chosen as one of the Best Young British Novelists in 2013 and this novel has been shortlisted this year for the Booker Prize.  Markovits explores the questions one has in middle age when the jobs of our youth such as raising children have been finished, marriages are not fresh and exciting necessarily and the rest of one's life looms.  Will the same path continue to be traveled or is it time to strike out on a new life, a new path?  As the reader watches Tom make this decision, they will think about their own paths and what lies ahead.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers